We Are Taking 4K Blu-rays Too Seriously

As a collector of physical media and a lover of movies, I think we are taking the 4K UHD Blu-ray format a bit too seriously.

We can split hairs (or pixels), go frame by frame , and zoom in to 100x on screenshots to nitpick transfers all day, but the reality is that we are living in an absolutely amazing time for home entertainment and physical media. Could something like True Lies have been done better? Of course, but it wasn't. And they aren't going to "fix" it. So it is what it is! I am enjoying having it and it is not like it is unwatchable.

I also think we are scaring away casual movie lovers and potential buyers by getting too deep in the weeds on the technical information. This should be a format that everyone can enjoy without needing to stress about buying the "right version" or "the best 4K transfers". I would encourage you to just buy the right movies for you, period, and go from there!

4K UHD is an amazing format. 99.9% of the time the new discs are better than anything we’ve ever had before. So let’s be happy about it and enjoy our collections for the reason we hopefully bought them in the first place - because we love movies!

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[JeffRauseo]

Posting this again here from my video description to get more eyes on it:

As a collector of physical media and a lover of movies, I think we are taking the 4K UHD Blu-ray format a bit too seriously.

We can split hairs (or pixels), go frame by frame, and zoom in to 100x on screenshots to nitpick transfers all day, but the reality is that we are living in an absolutely amazing time for home entertainment and physical media. Could something like True Lies have been done better? Of course, but it wasn't. And they aren't going to "fix" it. So it is what it is! I am enjoying having it and it is not like it is unwatchable.

I also think we are scaring away casual movie lovers and potential buyers by getting too deep in the weeds on the technical information. This should be a format that everyone can enjoy without needing to stress about buying the "right version" or "the best 4K transfers". I would encourage you to just buy the right movies for you, period, and go from there!

4K UHD is an amazing format. 99.9% of the time the new discs are better than anything we’ve ever had before. So let’s be happy about it and enjoy our collections for the reason we hopefully bought them in the first place - because we love movies!

[robertduncan]

If it weren't for HDR, I would be fine with regular Blu-Ray for most titles that are in 4k, but HDR makes a noticeable and worthwhile difference to me.

[Hofftimusprime]

Well I think it fair to complain when they are starting a lot of these discs at $30-40 a piece.

[jollygoodfellow]

We should not settle for AI upscales. The only thing that should satisfy us are legitimate rescans of the original film print or for lack of that the nearest copy of an actual film print.

[davivman]

The 4K format is the closest we have to being able to reproduce the Theatrical experience at home. I think consumers should absolutely make their voices heard either literally or with their wallets so that publishers understand what we want. Sometimes that means being critical and that’s ok.

[damboulton]

I actually think we do need to be critical of the lower quality releases because it’s very rare for a film to get a second attempt at a 4K release and like you said in the video, this is the end game of physical media formats. If a film gets a bad 4K release that could go on to be the ‘best’ version for the next 20 or more years. It’s vital that they get it right with the 4K and, most of the time, that will mean just scanning in the film at 4/8k and cleaning up any dirt, I don’t see any real utility to upscaling a movie already shot on film.

[staked]

Totally agree. However at 9min14 there is distracting aliasing on your blinds

[kfeatures]

I think this works both ways. Yes we sometimes are over blowing things that are barely decipherable with the human eye. But also, studios will cut corners to make profit and push out garbage if we don’t push back.

The Cameron stuff is unique bc the guy is simply not a fan of the format and wants all his movies to look plastic and as modern as possible. The Lucas effect has taken hold of him. But he’s in the vast minority and we can expect great releases from other auteurs moving forward with the knowledge that some (I expect something similar with Fincher) will require additional research before purchasing.

[frommatorav]

I truly do prefer watching the movies in 4k HDR but my preference to watch the highest quality format is for the experience. I feel more immersed in a lot of the movies in 4k. What I don't do is obsess with bit rate and pausing to see imperfections. That doesn't make watching movies more enjoyable. I watch to escape, not to stress out over them.

[CriPPleR_HD]

Anything could be reduced to the basics like “it is just pixels”. Most people who are on channels like this one are enthusiasts who spend their time building dope home theaters or man caves to watch their favorite movies in the best audio / video quality possible because of their passion for movies. If everyone was to “calm down” and accept what ever quality they put on disc, we would not watch channels that would most likely become infomercials and we would be happy with just streaming movies on our phones.

I for one don’t need a channel dedicated to telling me what’s in the box. I have nothing but respect for channels that do the hard work of analytically breaking down the audio / video quality. After all, anyone can turn on a camera and say “wow, this is cool” “Like and subscribe’

[jblank]

Hi Jeff, I have to disagree with you. Studios are charging more for product that frankly is just lazily done, in many cases. If we just accept whatever they throw at us, even if it’s “better than the Blu”, then they’ll never apply the effort they should, into things like high quality transfers, because they know the public will buy it anyway. Allowing AI to just scrub all the grain and detail out of films and then charge $30+ dollars for movies, is a slap in the face.

[stephenwilson]

"They're better than we've had before".

Sorry, but this take gives studios encouragement to release more films looking like the Cameron releases 😶

[AsterLea]

I can absolutely understand not wanting to spend all that time and energy on searching for those little details, I know I don't want to, but I do appreciate those who are willing to do it and share that info with us, whether you in the past or now others. I have a pretty small budget to spend on physical media, so I want to know that I'm getting my money's worth, and to be able to make an informed decision. Even if the minor imperfections don't influence me to not buy a certain version most of the time, in some cases if it's close enough, or expensive enough, it might.

[jastheace]

I only buy 4K movie's if i really love the movie and gonna re watch it many times, and they are normally sci fi

[whysoblutube]

Weird take. That’s pretty much the whole point of reviewing media - what does the video and audio look and sound like? Most don’t care about what YOU might think about the film, they want to know if it looks and sounds good. It could make you less reliable and you’ll still be receiving 4K media from the studio, but without the actual full review? IDK

[idonnowhattoput]

On the other hand it’s ok to not want waxy faces poor quality audio, a lack of special features and no effort retreads of old bad transfers.
Sorry but is more important to call out those kinds of things than the pixel peepers.

[joshuaalford]

The thing with upgrading to 4K is that we kinda inherently already care to an extreme about pixels. I love the format but if it's not worth nerding out about then just sticking with blu rays is probably smarter in general because of the cost

[SlashManEXE]

I think people are making their voices heard because they're so dedicated to these movies. It's important to praise studios when they put out solid work, or hold them accountable when they miss the mark.

[INABCinema]

This is really a real bad take on Physical Media. We have to hold the studios and gatekeepers (Directors) accountable to the quality of the media they are supplying us. You claimed that we have not had any media for True Lies before this to compare it to, except for DVD, and that is absolutely wrong. We had a marvelous DVHS, that was also used for the Spanish Blu-ray, and even though the DVHS was a 1080i transfer it was about as perfect as you can ask for. If you compare the 4K UHD to that transfer, the 4K UHD is a total mess as far as picture quality. The Atmos track is superb and not going to try to compare the DVHS' ac3 track, which is actually very well done, but we cannot allow the studio to gives a picture quality transfer that goes backwards to an already stablished reference transfer that is over 20 years old. Titanic and The Abyss proves that they are capable of giving us superb quality releases without changing the original source material (and Titanic showed that the bad CGI from the source was left alone and we knew that it was bad back then and it we accept that as a consequence).

If we begin to accept subpar quality transfers and the use of AI to change CGI aspects that were just fine in the original source material, then we are doomed to get what they give us which will subpar quality home physical media. I hope that your fears that studios will stop providing review copies if you take them to task for subpar releases will not be used as an excuse to tell us that we are taking physical media too seriously. Of course we are taking it seriously. We pay for the top notch quality that 4K UHD gives us and not a transfer that looks worse than a 22 year old transfer.

[LILGHETTI]

Unlike Jeff we don't get free 4k discs so, informing people on how it looks could save them money!